Galveston National Laboratory

About the GNL

The GNL is an anchor lab of the NIAID Biodefense Laboratory Network. The GNL is one of only two National Laboratories with Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) capabilities located on a U.S. university campus. The other is the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratory (NEIDL) located at Boston University. There are 12 Regional Biocontainment Laboratories, also located on university campuses, that have Biosafety Level 3 capabilities.

Through their independent research programs and collaborative efforts, these 14 laboratories work to improve understanding of dangerous pathogens that cause human disease and to develop diagnostics, vaccines and other medical countermeasures to defeat them. Network members also share best practices in Environmental Health and Safety, Biocontainment Engineering and Operations, Emergency Preparedness, and overall Lab Management.

A Leader in Education

Education is a major pillar of the mission of the Galveston National Laboratory, and each year the lab hosts conferences and symposiums as forums for bringing together the world’s brightest scientific minds to discuss emerging disease threats, share their discoveries and identify ways to address global health concerns through medical research and training.

Graduate students, medical students and visiting scientists from around the world benefit from training and working in the facility. More than 120 UTMB faculty and principal investigators conduct research with their teams in the GNL.

A Culture of Safety

The GNL Administration Core is responsible for leading in an environment that embraces an institutional culture of safety and security. Ensuring the safety of staff, students and the community is of utmost concern. One of the keys to the success of the organization is the use of a multi-disciplinary, team-based management system that involves personnel from every area of the organization.

This culture of safety maintains the focus on providing a laboratory that is functioning properly, with adequately trained personnel to reduce risks and to allow students and faculty to be as successful as possible.

Since opening in 2008, there has never been a major laboratory incident resulting in the transmission of a disease due to research or animal care, and there has never been a serious physical injury as a result of equipment or structural malfunction.